Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to renew the thalidomide health grant in April 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
While we are unable to take commit future funds at this time, ahead of the forthcoming Spending Review, we remain committed to supporting thalidomiders to live a full and independent life. We are working closely with the Thalidomide Trust to consider how thalidomiders can be best be supported in the future.
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide an update on the status of the Thalidomide Health Grant; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is committed to meeting the additional health needs of thalidomiders and to give them the same opportunities that others enjoy. The provision of the Thalidomide Health Grant is a central element of this. The current multi-year settlement continues for a further three years running until the end of the 2022/23 financial year.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 9 September 2019 to Question 286835 on Thalidomide, what his timetable is for considering evidence from the Thalidomide Trust on the continuation of the health grant for thalidomide survivors; and what plans he has for discussions with that Trust on the continuation of that grant.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Officials are in ongoing discussion with the Thalidomide Trust and hold regular meetings.
Further discussions with the Thalidomide Trust are due to take place later this year and we expect to discuss how those suffering from the effects of thalidomide can be best supported in future and consider arrangements after 2022 when the present 10-year grant is due to end.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to renew the health grant for thalidomide survivors in April 2023.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to meeting the additional health needs of thalidomide survivors and to giving them the same opportunities that others enjoy. The current health grant is a central element of this. We will be drawing on evidence in due course from the Thalidomide Trust regarding the value and benefits of the grant when considering arrangements for when the current 10 year grant ends in 2023. Future funding decisions will be undertaken as part of the appropriate Spending Review process in due course.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a national parking exemption badge to assist people (a) Thalidomide and (b) other disabilities that have difficulties in using the clock system on Blue Badges.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department has assisted local authorities by providing guidance to local authorities who may want to consider issuing an exemption letter to the Blue Badge holder which would clarify the position in the event of a Penalty Charge Notice being issued. Blue Badge holders affected with upper limb disabilities eg. Thalidomide can use marked disabled bays on-street without needing to display a parking clock alongside their Blue Badge.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to renew the health grant scheme for thalidomide survivors beyond 2022-23.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The future of budgets outside of the NHS England resource settlement will be confirmed later this year at Spending Review 2019, and as part of that process, we will be considering how thalidomiders can be best supported in future.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure the (a) impartiality and (b) independence of panels members on the Commission on Human Medicines’ independent scientific review of the publication by Professor Carl Heneghan into hormone pregnancy tests.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Since publication of the report of the Commission on Human Medicines Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPTs) the Government has committed to review any important new evidence that arises. In response to publication of the study by Heneghan et al. the Commission on Human Medicines convened an Expert Group to advise on the suitability and robustness of the methodology (including the selection and application of the data quality score) and any clinical implications.
To ensure impartiality none of the members of the Group was involved in the previous review by the Expert Working Group on HPTs. A specific conflict of interest policy was developed and all participants were required to complete and sign a declaration of interests form. Participants were asked to declare personal or non-personal interests in the companies who marketed HPTs or whose predecessors marketed them, current or previous involvement in any studies or reviews on HPTs, the expression in public of a strong opinion about HPTs or any of the companies that produced them, and direct or indirect involvement with, or peer review of, the publication by Heneghan et al. The conflict of interest policy and declarations of participants will be made public in due course.
For complete transparency the meeting was observed by the Chair of the Association for Children Damaged by HPTs, an advocate for those affected by thalidomide, a Lay representative and a representative from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.
In parallel, the European Medicines Agency is conducting an independent review of the publication by Heneghan et al. Both reviews are ongoing, and we expect the conclusions to be made public within a month of their completion, likely to be May 2019.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for the publication of the findings of the Commission on Human Medicines’ independent scientific review of the publication by Professor Carl Heneghan into hormone pregnancy tests.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Since publication of the report of the Commission on Human Medicines Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPTs) the Government has committed to review any important new evidence that arises. In response to publication of the study by Heneghan et al. the Commission on Human Medicines convened an Expert Group to advise on the suitability and robustness of the methodology (including the selection and application of the data quality score) and any clinical implications.
To ensure impartiality none of the members of the Group was involved in the previous review by the Expert Working Group on HPTs. A specific conflict of interest policy was developed and all participants were required to complete and sign a declaration of interests form. Participants were asked to declare personal or non-personal interests in the companies who marketed HPTs or whose predecessors marketed them, current or previous involvement in any studies or reviews on HPTs, the expression in public of a strong opinion about HPTs or any of the companies that produced them, and direct or indirect involvement with, or peer review of, the publication by Heneghan et al. The conflict of interest policy and declarations of participants will be made public in due course.
For complete transparency the meeting was observed by the Chair of the Association for Children Damaged by HPTs, an advocate for those affected by thalidomide, a Lay representative and a representative from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.
In parallel, the European Medicines Agency is conducting an independent review of the publication by Heneghan et al. Both reviews are ongoing, and we expect the conclusions to be made public within a month of their completion, likely to be May 2019.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2018 to Question 185531 on Germany: Thalidomide, what progress he has made on making it easier for UK Thalidomide victims to apply for compensation from the Contergan Foundation.
Answered by Alan Duncan
On 6 November 2018 I spoke with the German Ambassador to seek his assistance to make it easier for UK Thalidomide Survivors to apply for funding from the Contergan Foundation. He explained that only those who took the drug supplied by Grunenthal directly would be eligible for funding. The German Government do not consider that they have any liability for those who took the drug distributed under licence in the UK. Therefore, very few, if any, UK survivors would be eligible for this compensation.
I and UK officials have done all we can to address this issue with the German Government. We will continue to encourage constructive dialogue between the Thalidomide Trust and the German Government to explore what other support may be available.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with the German government on broadening access for other Europeans to its thalidomide fund.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Government is sympathetic to the care needs of UK Thalidomide survivors, who continue to benefit from the £80 million grant, to be paid over 10 years, which was announced by the Department of Health in 2012.
The FCO has helped the Thalidomide Trust to make its own representations to the German Government regarding the possibility of payments for UK Thalidomide survivors. I met representatives of the Trust to discuss this on several occasions. I raised the issue with my German counterpart Michael Roth on 9 July and with the German Ambassador on 23 July, to whom I handed a letter from Simon Hoare MP to Chancellor Merkel on behalf of the House of Commons All Party Thalidomide Group. In response to these representations, the German government has confirmed that UK Thalidomide victims are eligible to apply for compensation from the Contergan Foundation.
I hope to continue discussions with the German government on how it might be made easier for UK survivors to apply for these funds when I visit Berlin later this month.